Young Yaz: Trying To Make A Name For Himself At Birmingham

June 6, 1986|By Boston Globe

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — The view from second base is a particularly precarious one, especially if you've never stood there before in front of a full ballpark. It's a naked feeling. There are fans on all sides, waiting to judge you. There are infielders at each corner of the diamond -- enemies -- waiting to catch you.

Mike Yastrzemski was isolated, left standing on the second base bag of Wrigley Field to kick the dirt, test his spikes and test his courage.

His Chicago White Sox uniform was spotless -- a bold splash of white with red and blue trim that shouted to the 30,000 spectators: ''I am new. This is my first time. I've never made it to second base in the major leagues. I've never made it to the major leagues at all.''

He tried not to think about it because the batter, John Cangelosi, was already in the box, poised to bring Carl Yastrzemski's kid home.

''I thought I'd be nervous,'' Mike Yastrzemski would say later. ''But I was so intent on not being picked off, I didn't think about where I was, or what was happening.''

Instead, he focused on the ball. The batter swung, and Yastrzemski jumped. The batter missed, and young Yaz squirted back. Again a swing and a miss, again a move away, a move back. Then two balls, and an anxious twitch from the baserunner.

He got another good jump on the third swing, but it too was a miss. He was going nowhere.

''When he Cangelosi missed the last pitch, I had a chance to stand up and look around,'' Yastrzemski said. ''That's when I felt the excitement. I noticed there were a lot of people out there. But then, boom! It was over. The next guy was up.''

The next guy, Bobby Bonilla, was more obliging to the itchy 23-year-old who is a Florida State graduate. Bonilla rapped a double over the pitcher's head, and Yaz flew home, pumping his legs and letting the adrenaline take hold.

He scored the winning run. Carlton Fisk and Harold Baines came out of the dugout to slap his hand and pound his back.

It wasn't a dream; it was real. It took all of 15 minutes, but Yaz -- the son -- had scored in the big leagues.

There was one small problem. After the game, an exhibition with the Chicago Cubs for charity, Mike had to give the uniform back.

The run would never be recorded, only the memory. He was on a plane the next day back to Alabama, home of the Birmingham Barons, a White Sox farm team where Mike Yastrzemski is another name on another Double-A roster.

Mike grew up watching his father hit home runs. He grew up sitting in the best seats at Fenway Park and thinking that people such as Rico Petrocelli and Doug Griffin were nothing more than typical fishing buddies.

So his father was a major leaguer. Big deal. Every dad has to do some kind of work, doesn't he?

''I didn't figure it out until much later that my father was famous,'' Yastrzemski said. ''I saw him on TV a lot, but it didn't register. By the time I realized he was a Hall of Famer, he was too far gone.''

Mike's interest in playing baseball was always there, but like the rest of the kids in his neighborhood, it was mixed in among his passions for football, hockey and basketball.

He was never a big kid, and as he got older, baseball seemed better suited for his 5-foot-11-inch frame. Besides, Yastrzemski knew the old man's sport inside out -- summer vacations in his family were always spent at one ballpark or another.

''Once I went to the All-Star Game with them in Philadelphia,'' said Vince Crupi, Yastrzemski's friend since grammar school. ''We were about 13 or so, and afterward we got to go into the locker room and meet Hank Aaron, Pete Rose . . . I was so excited. It was a big, big thrill for me, but not for Mike. He was used to it. It was his life.''

Even then, people expected Carl's only son to be an athlete. He was the only one who dived for the football on the hardtop, who threw his helmet when the third strike got him swinging. In the neighborhood hoop games, he threw elbows at guys twice his size. And when his mother called for supper, he didn't answer until the game was won.